Seahawks slay the ‘Upside Down’ Panthers, destiny awaits vs. 49ers

For what is likely the last time this season, the Seattle Seahawks once again came to the East Coast and left with a victory, defensively suffocating the Carolina Panthers 27-10.With the win, the Seahawks move to 13-3, and have now tied for the franchise record for wins in a regular season, with one more game to go. They also have moved to 7-1 on the road this season, which is just remarkable. If not for the Sam Darnold collapse and Jason Myers missed field goal at the buzzer in Los Angeles, Seattle could be 8-0 on the road and have already locked up the top seed.

Nonetheless, the Seahawks are having a magical season, and now are just one more win away from a division title and the path to the Super Bowl going through Lumen Field. Let that sink in.

Let’s talk about the win, and what comes next.

First Down – Seahawks show their “Dark Side” against former friends

The 2025 Seahawks have promoted quite a few nicknames this season, with the latest one being “Dark Side.” One of the characteristics of this team that I have loved this season is their killer instinct. They have faced multiple desperate teams this year that needed victories, and the Seahawks have laid waste to their hopes. On Thursday night last week, they went for the kill when the Rams let up.

The same scenario happened Sunday as Seattle denied the zombie version of the Seahawks in Carolina their first division title in a decade. The Panthers are run by Dan Morgan, former Seahawks executive. They are coached by Dave Canales, former Seahawks head coach. They have multiple Seahawks players on their roster.

Despite the positive feelings that both sides have (minus Michael Jackson), the Seahawks once again played spoiler to an opposing team’s hope. It makes me more of a believer, if the Seahawks were forced to have to go on the road as a wildcard team in the playoffs. It also gives me more hope that Seattle can be the team that doesn’t care about the storyline or narrative, they’re going to shut you down and beat you.

Second Down – Darnold and Kubiak need to figure out the first half

As my Field Gulls colleague Bryce Coutts on the Hawks Eye podcast has pointed out, the slow offensive starts by the Seattle Seahawks is not just a trend, this is just who they are at this point.

Despite the win, the offense struggling to meet the championship expectations that this team’s defense and special teams clearly meet, feels ominous. The standings and statistics show that the Seahawks are the best team in the NFC and and honestly the NFL, but you watch any source of NFL media, and you can just feel the hesitation with the media being all in, and I think that starts with Klint Kubiak and Sam Darnold.

Ever since the disaster in Los Angeles, this offense has just felt like a mix of too conservative and out of sync with flow. A team that has publicly stated they want to be built on the run, but the Seahawks came out throwing on the first three plays of the game. It continues to take until the second half for Seattle to figure out which running back to give the ball to.

The play-action game has completely faded, taking away the highly efficient deep pass game that made Darnold and JSN looking like MVP contenders in November. When Seattle does run their play-action game, it’s usually predictable, and for some insane reason, Kubiak keeps asking Darnold to roll out to his left, giving thousands of 12’s across the globe to shriek in terror at would could possibly go wrong.

All of these struggles are a big reason as to why the traditional drop back game is so rough for Seattle. It’s crazy that the best team in the NFL is the worst in football at 3rd and long.

This team is so good, and this offense can be Super Bowl good, we saw it for the majority of the first 10 games this year. The lack of an identity continues to lead to poor decisions and turnovers. It’s important to remember, the NFL playoffs will always expose your team’s warts and challenge that team’s ability to overcome it.

This is nothing new, and nothing new to the Seahawks. In 2013, Seattle was the favorite to get to the Super Bowl, but there were serious concerns about the offense. After being on cruise control all year, the Seahawks limped into the playoffs, finishing 2-2 and saw their offense plummet from 28.3 ppg down to 19.25 ppg. The Seahawks offense didn’t exactly explode in the NFC playoffs, scoring 23 points against the Saints and 49ers, before the offense scored 27 of its 43 points in the Super Bowl victory.

If Seattle wants to recreate this storyline, then they need to take care of the football. They need to commit to the running game. They need to find ways to get AJ Barner, who has clearly become the second best option in this passing game. They need to find ways to allow Sam the time to take three or four deep shots a game to JSN or Rashid Shaheed. These guys are too talented and the explosive game changing opportunity there outweighs the risk.

That is the formula, along with a dominant defense and special teams unit, as to how Seattle will be playing in February.

Third Down – Speaking of Barner

He’s an absolute dawg, and I think you can make a case that he’s become one of the true faces of Mike Macdonald’s Seattle Seahawks. A late round tight end draft pick that was here for his blocking, Barner has become one of the best kept secrets in the NFL at the tight end position, and is arguably the most underrated player on this roster.

Despite Seattle drafting Elijah Arroyo early in the draft, there’s never been a question as to who the top guy is at that position in Seattle. The “blocking tight end” has 50 receptions (second most on the team) for 505 yards and six receiving touchdowns.

Beyond being one of the top young right ends, Barner has become the ultimate weapon at the “Barnyard” tush push play. According to ESPN stats, Barner has carried the ball 10 times. On nine of the snaps, he got the first down. On the other possession, he scored a touchdown. If you take away the false starts that have happened (Barner’s cadence has delivered a couple of neutral zone infractions now), the Barnyard play has never failed when there’s a clean snap.

Seven touchdowns, 50 for over 500, and a physicality and attitude that matches what the defense shows every week, AJ Barner is turning into something special for Seattle, and is a massive key to this team playing multiple games in Santa Clara.

Fourth Down – Destiny, Part II Arrives

For a while now, I’ve been writing about how important to the franchise the final games against the Rams and 49ers could possibly be. The Rams game was a measuring stick as the NFL world had already given the Rams the Super Bowl title apparently. Chaos and that M.O.B. philosophy kept hope alive, and despite the odds, the Seahawks stunned Los Angeles, knocked them out of the NFC West title race, and set the Seahawks up with a destiny-altering game at San Francisco.

Much like the Rams having been Seattle’s big brother during the Sean McVay era, Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers have been the twin bully big brother. In the past eight matchups, the Seahawks are a measly 1-8 against Shanahan. Now, in Santa Clara on Saturday night primetime, the Seahawks will head back on the road, to the house where the Super Bowl will be in just over a month, with a chance to take down their hated rivals, hang a division title banner, and snatch the coveted top seed in the NFC.

This is a franchise altering moment. The Seahawks earning the top seed has only happened three times previously in their 59 year history. They went to the Super Bowl in each of those seasons. A victory would mean the shortest and “easiest” path to making their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history. To accomplish all of this in a year that everyone thought you were a year away, at best, is still hard to grasp. To do it by walking over the bodies of your most hated rivals? There may not be a sweater and bigger moment for this franchise since the LOB Super Bowl teams, and this could potentially rival that.

As glorious as taking the West and all that comes with on the road against the 49ers, a loss could be equally as painful. This is the weakest 49ers contender we have seen, both from a health and talent perspective. To lose to them again, and blow the division and top seed would be incredibly painful. It would also set up a likely scenario where Seattle falls all the way to the sixth seed, and is playing at Philadelphia in the Wildcard round against the defending champs, just for the chance to return to San Francisco or even Los Angeles in the divisional round.

It’s not very difficult to see this season turning into the immediate car crash nightmare that the 2024 Minnesota Vikings felt. This is it, the regular season championship has arrived, destiny is on the line for Mike Macdonald, Sam Darnold and company. Get the monkey off their back, and you’re two wins away from going to the Super Bowl.